Category: short story
If you’re looking for a short story, here are some by me and other folks who have either contributed to the site or whose works are public domain. Some of these two will be short story prompts.
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Alice’s Prayers
After she was cast back to Umbravia by the evil Duke Cattivo-Piede, for false entry into Leoht, Alice could never forget her first-and-always love Aldun. Since her return to her homeland, her only wish was to return to that land of silver flowers and sapphire moons. And the crystal blue eyes of Aldun. Every night…
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Zuk and Zub – A Fable
At the dawn of time, an enterprising caveman, known as Swarthy Zub, lived at the far end of the cave village. Swarthy Zub might have thought himself an “entrepreneur,” and his old friend, Not-tall Zuk, a “mentor.” But, as neither word yet existed, Zub had not articulated this belief. Zub was a simple fur trader…
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Writers Group Near You — House Points
Starlings NYC has met since 2016 which is, as of 2023, seven years ago. I figured we would start keeping track of “house points.” As in 10 points for Griffyndor. There’s a writers group near you — what if they kept track of group points? Only in this case, it’s sales. And we’ll do it in…
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Ibex Brief
“Park & Main?” I asked Daryl the other day. “What?” Daryl asked back in a “what” kind of way. “I saw an advertisement on the television for Park & Main clothing and underwear. “I know all about Park & Main. An Amish family started it in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Their top-selling item [and here Daryl made…
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Too Good to Be True
I closed the book and tossed it on the floor. It landed with a light thud on a stack of magazines and newspapers. Pushing my glasses up over my eyebrows, I leaned my head back and rubbed my eyes and then breathed out a long restful sigh. I was coming to the close of another…
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Experimental Fiction Experiment
Dave King takes carpeted stairs into the basement of the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, Massachusetts thinking of experimental fiction. A remnant of variegated clay chips hint that Donald Maass, John Vorhaus, Jo Eberhardt, Sean Walsh, and Mike Swift had been playing poker. An oversized Jack of clubs (big enough to be a placemat) and a…
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The Guest in 22b
The motel on the corner of Cedar and Broadway had been a decent stopping point between Memphis and Tulsa on Route 66. Once there had been a fresh coat of paint and nights when the blinking “No Vacancy” sign lit up the neighborhood. But now the salmon pink exterior was nothing but an eyesore and…
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The Way the Birds Call
It was the early morning after a big snow and the sun had just come out from the clouds. Even still, the ground had kept its heat from earlier, hot spring days. Instead of sticking and freezing, it had turned the road into deep mud. Just another day of that familiar thick clay Ed was…
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Tiger Caves and Temple Monkeys
Previously published in The Best Asian Short Stories (2021), Kitaab, Singapore. The hills are dipped in pastel shades of gold and indigo. The wind surrounds me in playful whistles, beating my clothes in sudden outbursts and drying off the sweat on my neck. Joint-aches had troubled me a bit when I climbed up this rock,…
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Borrowed Time
Come sit with me, granddaughter of mine. I want to tell you a story about when I was a young man living in Connecticut in the fifties. As all good stories start, this one begins with once upon a time, but really, it was once upon two times. When I was in my twenties, television…
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Big Stick
Golden carambola – star fruit, appropriately enough – thrive in my southern uplands, their sweet flesh swelling with anti-oxidants for my colonists. Higher grow the Yangmei trees, their scarlet fruit bursting with healthful juice. Fields of teff spread across the plains, swirling into bright green waves when caressed by winds from the southern…
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Jacobi Fuji
The Simmons public library was a melting pot of the haves and have-nots, a mixture of homeless people and the wealthy older residents of the nearby neighborhood. This was no surprise to the woman sitting in the plush red armchair. Her hair pulled into a ponytail so tight, it might tear off her…